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Give Your Family Room Coastal Cottage Style
by Lee Dobbins

Description: Tips for decorating your home with a coastal cottage theme.

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Coastal cottage decor is chic and comfort all rolled into one. Chippy paint furniture, whimsical beach themed designs and easy to care for fabrics make this a perfect choice for the family room.

Regardless of your current decor you can get the cottage style in your family room with a few simple changes, like new flooring, accessories and slipcovers for the furniture. When redecorating, especially if you have a tight budget, you want to think about inexpensive changes that make a big impact such as wall paint and decorative accessories.

What's on your floor can add to the design theme, but if new floors aren't in the budget for your family room then work with what you have by covering them with area rugs that have a cottage style or a sisal rug if you are going for a more contemporary feel. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford new floors, you might consider light stained wood and soften it up a bit with area rugs.

Decorative accessories are important to pulling your coastal cottage style design together. Concentrate on buying pillows, wall art and knick knacks, in colors that remind you of the coast - tans, whites and blues work well with this theme. You'll be amazed at how easy and cheap it is, and what a huge difference these changes make! Be certain to include lots of sea shells in shallow bowls (you can even add in some beach sand!) as well as plants and you might even try certain chippy painted items like old newel posts or porch posts to add some punch to your family room. Additional touches like nautical themed pieces can add a unique touch.

The most important change to consider when decorating your family room with a coastal cottage style décor interior design is your wall paint. For this style the room colors make a big difference - you should consider using soft muted tans and whites either in your wall color or your accessories. Try using a paint in light colors like white, light yellow and light blue on the walls, or use a simple beach themed stencil. If you want a New England look, go for wainscoting halfway up the walls.

It's not critical that you have matching furniture but the family room should have a variety of pieces that are overstuffed and comfortable and sport fabrics that are easy to clean. Slipcovers go great with this informal cottage style. To really showcase this style, try pieces with chippy paint in white, light green or light blue.

Lighting is critical in most rooms and the family room is no exception. To match your cottage style décor, you might want to look at light fixtures in terms of both style and type. While you will be going for a cottage design, you would want to take a look at installing overhead ceiling fans in a white finish or using nautical themed hanging lights or simple chandeliers. Try clear glass lamps filled with sea shells for the side tables but try to shy away from anything which is heavy or dark lighting.

An important area that is frequently ignored when decorating your house is the wall space. Even the ugliest walls can be smashing by using decorative wall art and accessories. Try applying watercolors of the seaside or floral prints in chippy white frames to your family room walls to enhance the comfy feeling of your cottage decorating style.

Attaining a fabulous coastal cottage look in your family room can be as basic as just buying new decorative accessories or as involved as doing a total room remake. Either way, working on the details and coordinating your furniture and decorative accessories will help you coordinate a magnificent new cottage style décor look that will add comfort as well as style!

Lee Dobbins writes for DecoratingHowTo.com where you can learn about more decorating styles for your home.